PlanetCatfish.com

Dear all,

I have bought today five young panda's. When I took them home I saw one of them with a bad tail and back fin (dorsal fin?), there are pieces missing. As far as I can see, there is no sign of fungus or whatsoever.

In a good environment, will the fins cure back to normal again?

They should be OK but keep an eye out for infection.
Good conditions will help the healing process, I have used Garlic granules in the water for two days as a gram negative antibiotic for similar problems with good results.

@tim how dyou dose the garlic and what kind dyou use for this? Dyou feed it?

I use garlic oil 5ml to a 150g tub of high protein pellets.
1 Tsp of fine granules (Dried) to a 55g tub of flake fed to all the fish twice a week.
Garlic oil in the water if there are external problems such as parasites or abrasions.
I have used it for about 5 years now with good results, you should see the worms come out of wild caught Discus.

Thanks for the tips. I like the idea of putting it into the food. Is there any effect of garlic oil in the water on the bacteria involved in ammonia conversion (they are Gram neg. as well)? On the other hand, if people are using it with Discus fish, it can't be bad .

AOS wrote:Thanks for the tips. I like the idea of putting it into the food. Is there any effect of garlic oil in the water on the bacteria involved in ammonia conversion (they are Gram neg. as well)? On the other hand, if people are using it with Discus fish, it can't be bad .

I have not noticed any problems with the filter bacteria but the Discus were always given 50% water changes daily.
I have noticed they are advertising Garlic Oil a lot in magazines for use in reef tanks .

Whenever I have a fish that has serious fin damage my normal coarse of action is to catch it and paint the damaged area's with Methylene Blue. Fins normally re-generate very quickly.

Ian